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Amanda Berry surprises concert crowd

View LargerBrian Harrell | Associated PressA waving Amanda Berry makes her first public appearance since her rescue from a Cleveland home at the RoverFest concert. She stepped onstage during a performance by Nelly, left.

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CLEVELAND — One of three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade made her first
public appearance Saturday at a concert featuring the rapper Nelly.

One day after her abductor pleaded guilty to kidnap and rape charges, Amanda Berry showed up at
the daylong RoverFest concert in Cleveland on Saturday night, walking onstage with her family and
waving at the cheering crowd. Wearing sunglasses and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, Berry
smiled broadly while acknowledging the applause, but she didn’t address the crowd.

Nelly called Berry back to the stage after his music set.

The appearance came a day after Ariel Castro, a former school-bus driver, pleaded guilty to 937
counts in a deal that will send him to prison for life without parole, plus 1,000 years.

Berry, now 27, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight disappeared between 2002 and 2004 when they were
16, 14 and 20 years old, respectively. They escaped in May when Berry kicked out part of a door and
called to neighbors for help.

Shane French, the host of the syndicated talk-radio show
Rover’s Morning Glory on WMMS in Cleveland, told the Associated Press in a telephone
interview yesterday that he was surprised when Berry showed up at the annual festival. French, who
goes by the name Rover on radio, said he had issued an impromptu invitation on his show a few weeks
ago but didn’t know Berry was listening.

“I just said that she had 10 years of partying to make up for and she should come,” French
said.

He said he was surprised when security guards told him Berry had arrived.

French said Berry at first refused to go onstage but then agreed and asked if he would go with
her.

“She didn’t say why she decided to come, but some of her family members told me they listen to
my show every day and had been to RoverFest in the past,” French said.

He said a couple of the women with Berry cried, overcome by the crowd’s cheers for Berry.

“I didn’t see her cry, but I think she was pretty overwhelmed by the response that the crowd
gave her,” he said of Berry. “She just seemed to be having a great time.”

Castro, 53, who was arrested and jailed shortly after the women escaped, was accused of raping
and beating the three repeatedly. He also fathered a 6-year-old daughter with Berry, authorities
say.

Earlier this month, the three women offered thanks on YouTube for emotional and financial
backing they’ve received since going “through hell and back.”